The Girl's Spirits
by Quisquilious
Summary: Nights plagued by nightmares are something Hermione has come to terms with, her boring life, not so much. Could friends, old and new, be the answer to all of her problems? Slow build DMHG


Hermione held her breath and slowly eased the bedroom window shut, and hoped that no one had heard her sneaking back in.

It was 7:30am and the other occupants of the smallish flat should be waking up, stumbling around for coffee and dragging themselves, still half asleep, off to work. This is what she also should have been doing, she shouldn't be sneaking back into her own home.

She hated this sneaking around, she was 21 for gods sake, she shouldn't need too. Living with Harry had seemed like a good idea at the time, and for a while it was, even when Ginny spent six night out of seven there, she didn't mind. She didn't see either of them very much at all, both Harry and Ginny had full time jobs, keeping them busy, and after work their time was usually filled with work events, nights having family dinners at the burrow and date nights. Usually, she would see them at least one night out of the week, they would the three of them sit together and watch muggle movies, and gorge on popcorn and sugary treats. Not recently though, they had had a disagreement of sorts, neither Harry or Ginny believing it was acceptable for her to be out all night, they insisted they were worried about her, though Hermione did not know if they were worried about what she was getting up to, or worried that she was out at night on her own, she understood that after the war, everyone had been on edge, a lingering fear surrounding everyone. Hermione though no longer held that fear in her heart, she didn't find herself looking over her shoulder anymore, worried about who or what was behind her, she no longer found herself gripping her was so often, not afraid of something jumping out at her. The only fear Hermione had now, was the fear that plagued her at nights when she slept. It had started out with her only going out maybe once a week, and then weekends, and it had slowly escalated from there.

Everything was beginning to calm down after the war, it seemed everyone was finding their own new sense of normality, new habits and jobs and such. Some of her classmates had gone on to further their education, some had found careers, even left the country to pursue a life elsewhere, away from the past.

Not Hermione though, she had gone through more than a few jobs, but she just couldn't find one that she could see herself doing for the rest of her life, she had always wanted a career, but she just wasn't prepared for the real world yet. She had been working in an office holding a secretarial type position, a particularly mundane job, that didn't need to the use of much of her brain. She found herself bored, sorting out documents and making appointments, after work she found herself at a loss, she didn't actually know how to fill her time anymore, far too used to the craziness of war. Between that, and seeing Harry and Ginny off out socializing most nights, she had decided that she needed to do the same. She could not spend the rest of her life not only stuck in an unfulfilling job, but coming home from said job and doing nothing, yes she had always loved reading, and she still was happy to lose herself in a boo, but even she knew that spending all of her free time hiding plunging herself into another reality wasn't going to help her re-establish a life of her own.

She had quickly lost interest in in going out in the wizarding world, she hated that everyone knew her name, people looked at the Golden Trio where ever they went, constantly hearing her name whispered. She hated the way she was treated, being put on a pedestal and treated as a celebrity by some people, when all she wanted was to be a normal person again, she didn't want to worry about what everyone thought of her, what people were saying about her.

She had decided, on a Friday after she had finished work, that she would perhaps venture out into the muggle world, she figured it wouldn't hurt to go out for a couple of drinks, find a nice bar, maybe meet some new people, making new friends was never a bad thing. She had rushed home from work, deciding she would maybe try dressing herself up a bit, she was bored of the same boring office clothes through the week, and the horrible and old slouchy clothes she wore during her weekends, maybe it was about time she tried wearing some of the clothes that Ginny and Luna had tried to force upon her. She had picked out a simple dress, that she thought perhaps Luna had given her, though she couldn't actually remember, it was a black cocktail style of dress, modern yet still remaining classy. She had attempted to tame her hair, teasing it into soft curls rather than the frizzy mess she usually left it in, she had even applied some make-up, though not much, seeing as she owned very little product and quite frankly didn't have the skills to use most of what she did have. She had smiled at herself in the mirror and made her way out the door of her flat.

Hermione felt like a child, stumbling around, having no idea where she was going, she didn't know of any good pubs, and she had never set foot in a club before, she just didn't know what she was looking for, and it felt very odd going out on her own, she had never been out without the comfort of friends around her, the chatter of friendly conversation nipping at her ears. She felt very out of sorts, but after making her way sown a busy street in the center of London, she finally decided on a place, it had looked nice fro the outside, a light stoned building was large windows, and pale purple lights shining the name of the place on to the front of the building. She took a deep breath and forced herself to walk inside, the inside was just as pretty as the outside of the building had been, though looking around she noticed that there were not many people inside at all, a few tables of people, she toko her time walking towards the bar, peering at people, watching them interact, she took one of the stools lining the front of the bar, and smiled at the barman.

She had ordered a glass of wine, quickly realizing that she didn't have much knowledge at all of muggle alcohol, and stumbling a bit when she was handed a wine menu, she realized then that the place was a bit more upper class than a local pub, and the prices on the menu proved that. She had glanced at the menu, though it didn't help her much, she found herself just pointing at a random wine on the list, and hoping that she liked it. She took the glass from the bar staff and handed over her cash, she was glad that she had at least picked out a white wine, knowing at least, that the only time she had tried it, she hadn't much liked red wine. She accepted her change when it was handed to her, happy that she at least knew how to handle muggle money without feeling awkward. She picked up the glass and took a sip, grimacing as she swallowed the alcohol, not sure at all f she liked the taste or not, it was slightly sweet, but left behind a strange aftertaste that she wasn't used to.

She sat gazing around, playing with the stem of her glass, she found herself watching the table of people nearest to her, there were about 8 of them, and she thought by the look of them, that they must attend the local university, they were making quite a bit of noise, and looked like they were really enjoying themselves. As she watched them, Hermione felt her mood drop, university, it had always been a path she had seen herself taking, ever since she had been a child, she had planned for it, dreams of attending one of the best universities, Harvard maybe Oxford, she had always just assumed she would. Her thoughts turned to what classes she would have taken, if she would have enjoyed them, though she knew that she would, she thought about whether she would have chosen a career had she had studied further, would it have been magical or a muggle profession. She thought of friends, would she have made any, would she be out right now, spending her Friday night in some run down bar, drinking cheap and probably watered down drinks, would she be the one sitting with a group of people right now, laughing and cheering on those attempting to down a drink, would she be smiling and dancing to cheesy pop music with girlfriends, attempting to play pool and failing, stumbling home and waking te next day with a horrific hangover.

Hermione let out a sigh and stood from the bar, her glass of wine only half finished. She stared at the drink from a few moments, and smiling sadly, made to walk away from it. She stared around the room one more time as she made her way to the door, chancing one last glance at the group of people still chatting happily, she pulled her coat around her and started the journey home. As she walked, she wondered about all her old friends, all the people she had been friends with before she became the witch she was today, those she went to her muggle primary school with, who she spent her summers with, she wondered how they were, what they were doing with their lives, and then she felt bad that she hadn't made time for them, she had completely lost touch with them when the war had gotten bad. It was one thing she had promised her friends when she had found out she would be going to Hogwarts, she promised that they would still all be the best of friends, that whenever she was home for the holidays they would see each other, spend all of the holidays together, and for a while, she had kept that promise, all the way through to sixth year, she had kept in contact with them, sharing stories about school and boys, going to the cinema together, she had even passed on letters via her parents. She decided she would make contact, at the very least she would try and mend her distanced friendships, she realized that by this point after years, they may not be mendable, but what could possibly be the harm in trying.

As soon as she got back to the apartment she shared with Harry she walked straight to her room. The lights had all been off in the house, and she knew that Harry and Ginny would still be out, it was still early after all. She took off her shoes and threw them in to the bottom of her wardrobe, slowly her wardrobe had went from being extremely neat and tidy, to an absolute mess, her clothes were still hung up neatly, but the shoes at the bottom were most a jumbled up pile, no pair sitting together. She walked to her desk, pressing the button on her computer, and wincing as it sputtered and then roared to life, it had been so long since she had actually turned it on, she was surprised it even worked anymore. As she was waiting for the computer to load up completely. She went in search of her old diary, there was very little in it to do with her thoughts and feelings she had never been one to really keep a diary, she had received one every year as a birthday present from someone, either a family member or friend, and she had always made an effort to use it, but that usually only lasted a week, this diary though, she knew it had the email addresses of two of the girls she was closest too when she was growing up, the two girls she had made the most effort to keep in contact with before, Claire and Abbie.

She had searched through almost every part of the house looking for the diary, though she knew that one of them held the contents she was looking for, she had been given that many of the damn thing over the years, and all of them contained enough useless writings in them that she had to flick through every single one to check if it was he one she was looking for or not. She sighed in relief as she finally found the details that she had been looking for, she stood with the diary and made a face at the mess that now lay around her room, old teddy's and books lay everywhere on the floor, and every drawer laying open, she waved her hand and decided that sorting the mess could wait, for now. She removed the pile of the other diaries from the chair at her desk, and placed them on her bedside table, they would maybe be something amusing to read before bed. She took a seat at the desk and stared at the computer screen, forcing herself to remember exactly how to use the device. She clicked on the icon for her internet browser and waited, as soon as the page loaded she set about typing in the address to her email client. She found herself thankful that she had only ever needed one password, she did not use any other websites anymore. She clicked on the login button and almost groaned in frustration as a little box popped up on the screen, though she wasn't surprised when she read it, her account was no longer available. Had it honestly been so long, that her account had been deleted.

Sighing, the girl placed her head in her hands, this was turning into a lot more effort than she had been anticipating. Clicking on the button at the bottom of the page, she set out to make a new email address, it took what felt like forever, though was only ten minutes or so, and Hermione wondered when things had become so complicated. Once in to her brand new account, it didn't take long for her to type in the email addresses of both of her old friends, though figuring out what exactly to say to them did take quite a while. She had decided to write both of the girls at the same time, hoping that this would make things simpler, unfortunately though, it had not, and she found herself struggling to come up with an excuse, she couldn't exactly tell them that she had been stuck fighting some war that to any muggle, didn't exist. In the end, it too her almost three hours to type out her message to both girls. She had of course apologized for not keeping in touch with them, telling them that there had been a disastrous fire at her private school. That she had lost many of her friends due to this, and that this has been the reason she had withdrawn. She hated lying like that, she felt as if she was belittling the people who had died in the war, but there was no way she could tell the truth of course.

Shutting the lid on her dusty old laptop, she glanced at the clock on the wall above, shocked when she realized that it was already one in the morning, she had to be up for work in just six hours, she sighed and made her way through to the kitchen, wondering if Harry and Ginny had somehow managed to come home without her even noticing, though to most it wouldn't be, to them this was quite late, they had been at the burrow for dinner though, so she wondered if they had perhaps decided to stay the night there, something Molly was likely to force them to do, had they, by her terms, drank to much to safely apparate back to the flat. Hermione walked into the kitchen, and turned on the cold tap, while waiting for the tap to run cold, she grabbed a glass from one of the dark wood cabinets, such a beautiful kitchen, yet it was rarely used beyond light snacks and beverages. She stuck her hand under the cold tap for a few seconds, and decided it was definitely cold enough. She filled her glass and shut the cabinet door again before making her way once again through to her bedroom. Sitting the glass of water on what little space was left on her bedside table, she reached into the top drawer and grabbed a hair tie, pulling her hair back, she thought once again about the emails she had sent, she wondered if she would even get a reply, would they even care anymore, was their life fulfilling enough that they didn't even want her back as a friend, would they even believe her excuse, or take it for what it was, a pitiful made up excuse. sighing she slid into her bed, puling the bulky duvet up to her shoulders, she reached over to switch the lamp off, and hoped she would get a couple of hours sleep that wasn't plagued by nightmares.

Unfortunately, it wasn't long before the dreaded nightmares began, in a cruel twist her nightmares morphed. She was used to the usual nightmares, though they never failed to leave her in a sweaty and trembling mess, tears steaming down her face. She supposed it made sense, her nightmares, night after night she dreamt of the deaths of the war, deaths she had witnessed, sometimes ones that she had only heard about, she dreamt of the gruesome ways they had passed, the pain the cruelty, and worst of all the suffering, she figured that maybe this was her body or minds way of dealing with them, during the war there was no time to even think about the deaths, never mind the people that had been lost, maybe this was her own brain giving her the chance. though she wished she could get some more sleep. That night though, she still dreamt of the same people, the same agonizing moments she watched them pass, though the setting was different, as though her mind were taunting her, making her feel guilty for the lies she had told. Yes, it was the same faces, but now, now she was watching them burn to death, the imaginary private school fire had settles into her brain and warped her dreams, making her nightmares worse, making her watch the ones she love slowly perish in the most painful manner, she worried about her own mind, that it would even create something like that, so vivid and terrifying, feeling as though she could feel the heat on her skin, her head pounding from the pained screams that echoed around her.

Her sleep had been fitful of course, she had tossed and turned attempting to force herself back to sleep, and her throat was raw from she assumed crying while she dreamt. She turned around and pushed her hair from her eyes struggling to awaken herself, but she jumped out of bed as soon as she glanced over at the clock. She had overslept, either she had slept through her alarm, or she had somehow forgotten to set it at all, something she had never done. She panicked and ran to her wardrobe, she hesitated only a moment before realising it didn't matter what she worse, she was late as it was, pulling out the first thing she grabbed she threw the clothes on, a pair of black trousers and a relatively plain fitted black blouse, she had only twenty minutes before she needed to be at work so she had no time to do much at all with her hair except remove the hair tie and pull her hair back up in an attempt to make it at least look slightly tidier. Her boss hated her enough already, she didn't need to make that worse by being late. Thankfully she made it to her desk just on time, and for once she wasn't complaining about her job, usually she hated getting there and being sent back out to get coffee for half the office, it, it wasn't that she found the task demeaning after all, this was a position she had chosen to take, something she didn't have to care too much about, but she did hate going out in the middle of winter with a long list of coffee's and tea's to bring back, today she was thankful though, as she now had the chance to grab something for herself, as she made the order she also purchased a pastry, hoping that she would manage the coffees and quickly eat before she got back to the office, she thanked Merlin for magic as she levitated the coffee in front of her. This was a difficult task, concentrating on eating, washing it down with her tea not walking into other people, and controlling her spell work, but she somehow managed without spilling coffee everywhere. She struggled throughout the day to stop herself from yawing as she sat at her desk, usually if she didn't rush through it, making her work last the entire day was easy, but today she had finished it relatively quickly, using work to try and keep herself awake. The day felt as if it was passing ten times slower than it usually did, which was making her feel even more tired than she already was. The next thing she knew she was being startled awake by the sound of her boss's door opening. She lifted her head from her desk in a panic and quickly sorted her hair and rubbed her eyes before she was seen.

Hermione's boss Mrs Aezle almost jumped out of her own skin when she noticed Hermione sitting at her desk.

"Hermione! I didn't expect you to still be here, you're usually gone as soon as your shift ends. It's good to see you actually putting in some effort." Mrs Aezle had smiled then, and waved as she walked past Hermiones desk.

Hermione glanced at the clock and was shocked to realise that she had been sleeping for hours, it was half past six, she had been there for over an hour longer than she had to be, something the she didn't think she had ever done while working here, stayed later than she had too. Hermione quickly stood up and started to gather her things to leave, but she paused as she realised that her boss had smiled, at her, something she had never done, not once in the three months Hermione had been working there. She shook her head, grabbed her bag and made her way to the apparation point in the entrance of the building. The bright white marble of the reception almost blinded her, her eyes still not quite adjusted to her being awake again. When she had finally gotten home, she was much more awake, and regretting her impromptu nap, she knew she would never be able to to fall asleep at a decent time now. Not that it mattered when she thought about it, she got very little sleep at night anyway.

The flat was empty when she had gotten home, though she had known that would be the case, her two friends were off doing something that had who knows what to do with Ginny's team, Hermione still had no interest in Quidditch, though she did occasionally try and force herself to go to some of Ginny's more important matches. She grabbed her wand from her handbag and with one flight she turned on the lights in both the living room and the kitchen, she hated that it got so dark so early in the winter, she waved her wand once again as she walked towards the kitchen, lighting the fire in the living room, she filled the kettle and switched it on to boil, as was her usual after work routine, she busied herself with making herself a sandwich while she waited, she decided that later she would maybe order herself a takeaway as a treat, something that she very rarely did, though she did suppose it was Saturday and after accidentally staying at work longer than she needed to do, she deserved it, she shook her head as she realised quite how unexciting her saturday even was set to be, she didn't mind that she worked a Saturday, she still got two days off a week, a Sunday and a Wednesday, as those were they days that her boss was not in the office, Hermione didn't exactly have a riveting social life anyway, so she didn't usually feel as though she was missing out on a friday night. She took a bit of her sandwich when she finished and chewed slowly as she made herself a cup of tea. She took her tea and snack through to her room, intending on grabbing a book to read, but as she walked into her room she spotted her computer and remembered the emails she had sent the night before, and she wondered if she had received any reply. She sat her cup and plate down on the desk and made herself comfortable. She had eaten half of her sandwich by the time the computer had finished turning on, and by the time she had gotten into her emails she had finished eating, and half of her tea was gone. Hermione was excited to see that she had one email in her inbox, and seeing as she had only opened the account yesterday and had not given anyone else the address, she assumed that the email was from either Abbie or Claire.

She opened the Email Claire, and as she was reading, she realised that it was from both of the girls. She smiled as she read through it, jealous of both girls as she learned that they were both going to college together, and that they were sharing a flat, once again she found herself wondering what she would have done, maybe she would have went to the same college, maybe she would have been sharing a flat with them too. The email hadn't been very long, stating that they both had to get to class and apologizing if the message seemed rushed, but they had both left their mobile numbers at the bottom of the email, telling her she should text them and that they just had to do some catching up. Hermione opened the top drawer of her desk, rummaging for the mobile phone that she never used. She winced as she thought about how long it had been since she had used her phone, she had only ever used it to contact her parents really, and she still wasn't ready to find them yet, she was worried at how they would react to what she had done, she has wondered if maybe they led better lives now, than they had before, she was too scared to even find out what they had been doing. She soon found the old phone and thanked Merlin that she had charmed it when she first got it, because there was no way she would be able to find the charger, and it may not have been turned on, but after that long sitting in a drawer surely it would have been dead. She slowly added the new numbers to her contacts, taking a few moments to even remember how to do that, and and then sent off two texts both saying the same thing.

Just got your emails! It's so good to hear from you, we definitely do need a catch up! You must let me know when you are free :)

Hermione x

She set the phone down on the desk and took her empty dishes through to the kitchen, choosing to wash them by hand rather than using magic, something she had been doing a lot since the end of the war, she had seen magic used for so many bad deeds during the war, so many killings, so she had not so much chosen to take a break, it was something that had just happened, she found that she had started to use it only when she needed too. She dried the dishes and put them away before making her way back to her bedroom, she was at the door as she heard her phone go off, almost jumping at the noise because it had been so long since she had heard the sound, she hadn't even been sure what it was, as soon as she did realise she rushed over to pick it up, and then mentally chastised herself, she acting like a silly school girl getting excited over a text. The text was from Abbie, asking her if she would like to meet them that night, telling Hermione that they were having some friends over for some drinks and that she was more than welcome to join, they had given their address and told her to be there for half past eight. Hermione looked and the clock, half past seven, that was more than enough time for her to get ready, she sent back a quick text telling them that she would be there.

Hermione decided that there was no need to dress up, it seemed like it would be a casual night, just a few people having drinks, right? She threw on a pair of her jeans and a black tank top, choosing to throw on a pair of old trainers, she had enough of wearing heeled shoes at work all week. She realised that she had no jewelry, costume or otherwise, to put on, something she had never given much of a care about before. She pulled her hair up in to a messy bun, the curls from the night before now starting to frizz again, she tried to make it look as neat as she could, wrapping a few of her loose curls around her finger in attempt to tease them back into shape. She applied minimal makeup, just enough to hide the discoloration beneath her eyes and annoying blemishes, then decided that she was ready to go. By the time she deemed herself acceptable to be seen in public, it was quarter past eight, and she figured that would be enough time to apparate somewhere close by and find the correct building.

She quickly realised that she had in fact been wrong, there had been a lot of new buildings appear since the last time she had set foot in her hometown, she hardly recognized the place, it was as if it had expanded, though from when Hermione could tell, farms and open field, the field she had ran around in as a child, had made way for new builds, blocks of flats, new schools, factories, it was as if it was a whole new place. She knew the street that she was looking for, it was a place that had always been there, but even that area looked almost foreign to Hermione, it seemed it was now a student zone, what was once a street filled with shops and tea shops, was now lined with takeaway shops and clubs, she felt disorientated as she walked through it, and by the time she made it to Abbie and Claires flat it was just past nine o'clock.

There was nothing particularly special about the building, a lovely old stone building, once quiet and dreary, had now come to life, Hermione could tell that it was almost all, if not exclusively, students living in the building, the front entrance to the building had it's door wedged open with a rather dusty looking fire extinguisher, she could hear music coming from more than one flat, and there seemed to be people almost spilling out of the building. She made her way in, tiptoeing around the random people in the hallways, almost losing her balance as she dodged people on the stairs, she sighed in relief when she finally found herself on the third floor, looking at the numbers on the doors, she realised that the one she was looking for, was wide open, and seemed to be where all the people were spilling from, the music was loud, and it was not a genre that she was used to hearing.

Finding no reason to knock, as she doubted it would even be heard over the music anyway, Hermione made her way into the flat, from what she could tell, the front door opened straight in to the living room, there was what looked to be two couches and other furniture that pointed to it being the living room, though there were people not only all over the couches, but covering almost all furniture with enough space to sit on. The flat was filled with people, it looked like you could hardly move inside, it seemed her idea of a few people was vastly different to Claire and Abbies, glancing around the packed room it took a while for her to determine whether or not she could see the two girls she was here to see. Hermione decided that they must be in another room, she was certain that they couldn't have changed that much in the last few years, that she would be unable to even recognize them. Apologizing as she squeezed past multiple people, all of which seemed to be holding cups or bottles of alcohol, she noticed there were even more people packed into the space than she had first thought, every corner was filled with people, the lined the walls, sitting cross legged on the floor, and somehow people were managing to dance in between all of them.

The noise level in the room was enough to hurt Hermiones ears, the music was so loud she was surprised to realise that she could actually feel it, almost thumping along with her own heartbeat, but at the same time, there were a lot of people also shouting very loudly, in an attempt to be heard over both the music and the other voices in the room. Deciding on making her way toward what looked to be a gap in the crown, she hoped this would lead her to another room, and she soon found herself in a small, but still very crowded hallway, she determined that her friends were not amongst the people she assumed were waiting to get into the bathroom, and kept walking towards an open door, from what she could see, it appeared she had reached the kitchen, though the smoke and the people had made it hard to notice at first, looking around it appeared that minus the crowd and the smell filling the air, it was a pretty nice looking kitchen, the cabinets all shinning white, and the work tops and walls all seemed to be some type of glittering black material. There was a dinning table in the middle of the room surrounded by four chairs, though the top of the table was filled to the very edges with various bottles of assorted alcohol, most of which, Hermione was sure she hadn't even heard of.

Hermione stood in the open doorway for a minutes, not really sure at all what to do with herself, and feeling like she may even be in the wrong flat, as she certainly could not find the two girls, and she didn't think they would be hidden in their bedroom while this was going on within their home, that was definitely not something she could see herself doing, though she also couldn't see herself ever having this many people in her house, especially not drunk.

Just then, two heads appeared at the opposite side of the room, it seemed they had been bent over the kitchen counter, though Hermione wasn't quite sure why. Both of the girls straightened up, sniffed, and then turned around at the exact same time, which had amused Hermione. It seemed they both noticed Hermione at the same time and with wide grins on their faces, attempted to make their way over to the girl, dodging people and almost tripping over chair legs as they fought their way through the room. Hermione had grinned and opened her arms to hug the two girl making towards her, Claire and Abbie had immediately grabbed her and tumbled towards the table, arms still encasing her. Hermione noticed that she was still just standing their smiling, and it felt almost foreign, she wasn't sure of the last time she had genuinely smiled like this.

"Hermione! I can't believe that you are here!" Abbie had shouted at her over the music, as she was making herself busy at the table, she assumed getting herself another drink, but before she could reply, she was assaulted by another voice.

"It's been so long! We totally need to catch up, have a drink with us Hermione!" Claire had shouted, right into Hermiones ear, and she was pretty sure, she didn't actually have a choice in the matter, she remembered how stubborn her friends used to be, the three of them not talking for weeks because neither of the three of them would let it go.

"Of course I'll have a drink with you." She had tried shouting back at the two girls, though she wasn't even sure if she had been heard. As she went to shout again, just to be sure, Abbe turned around from the table with two small glasses in her hands, she handed one to both Hermione and Claire and turned back to the table to grab her own almost overfilled glass. Hermione knew it was a shot of something, though what, she wasn't entirely sure, it was clear in colour, so she at least knew that it wasn't whisky.

Hermione thought that it was maybe vodka, one of the few muggle alcohols she knew of, and something she also knew didn't have the most pleasant of tastes, she almost felt sick at the memory of her first taste, she was sure that Claire Abbie and herself had been maybe fifteen years old, and Abbie had gotten a hold of some vodka from her parents drinks cabinet, they had put only a small amount into their glasses, something she had seen her father do with his whisky, and all at the same time, they lifted the glasses to their mouths and drank. Hermione smiled at she remembered all of their reactions, she remembered how strangely smooth it had been and the burn it gave her at the back of her throat, but most vividly she remembered how much she had hated the taste. Hermione had had to endure the taste of some downright awful positions since then, and she was sure that she could handle this mouthful, well, she hoped she could. Copying Abbie and Claire, she raised her glass slightly and after clinking the three glasses together, tipped the liquid into her mouth. To say she was surprised would be an understatement, and she almost choked as the alcohol made it's way down. She thought the burn of firewhisky as it went down was bad, but it was nothing compared to this, though she wasn't sure if the shock was making it worse. She was sure her face was twisted into an odd expression as the burn left her throat and made it's way down to her stomach, and as soon as she took a deep breath, the aftertaste and strange cool sensation in her mouth hit her, a strong aniseed taste was left in her mouth, that reminded her of the black jack sweets she used to eat as a child, and though it has come as a shock, she was sure she prefered it to the faint memory of the taste of vodka. Both Claire and Abbie were still standing in front of Hermione, laughter clearly shinning in their eyes.

"What? You don't like sambuca?" Abbie had asked, finally letting out a few giggles.

"I had never had it before, it was just unexpected." Hermione explained, almost feeling embarrassed at not knowing what it was. Though unsure whether she even liked the drink, she watched as the two girls had turned back to the table and poured another three shots. Soon, she had taken another three shots with the girls, and she almost felt as if she could literally feel the alcohol hitting her blood stream, she felt a bit more relaxed and felt a tenseness leaving her shoulders, hat she hadn't even noticed had been there before. Hermione found that the more shots of sambuca she had taken, the less it had burned on the way down, though unfortunately the taste had began to stick around longer, and though she didn't mind aniseed, it wasn't long before she was wishing the taste would just go away. She had considered trying to make her way over to the tap to get herself a drink of water, but had eventually decided to give up when even after shouting, no one had paid enough attention to move out of the way. Abbie and Claire had disappeared into another room of the flat by this point, a loud crash from somewhere drawing them away, and Hermione hoped that nothing had been broken.

Hermione found herself still standing in the kitchen twenty minutes later, though her friends had not said that they would be back, Hermione had kind of assumed that they would, and wondered if they had maybe forgotten about her. She had spent the time standing there, watching people make their way over to the table still filled with drinks, and though she still wasn't sure of the names of the alcohol in front of her, she had watched many people pour themselves drinks, and she was beginning to figure out popular concoctions, but wasn't quite sure if she was ready to mix one for herself quite yet. Soon, someone must have noticed that she was watching people quite intently for she was startled out of her thoughts.

"You want one?" The words were spoken right in to her ear, close enough to make the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end. She turned to her right, towards the voice and found a guy, she though to be around her age, staring at her and waiting for an answer. He was quite a handsome specimen Hermione decided, his features were sharp, though not quite enough to make him look angular and pointy, and the light stubble softening them more. His hair was dark brown and in a style she hadn't seen before, shaved in close at the sides but at the top it was long, almost enough length to tie back. She found that she couldn't help but smile back at him and nod.

"I would love one, thank you." She found herself smiling again, and wondered if maybe she was at the very least slightly tipsy. She watched as he poured himself a drink, and nodded when he asked her if she wanted the same, judging from the bottles she had been staring at for a while, she could see that it was vodka and lemonade, a choice a few people had been making, she figured that it couldn't be that bad, if some many people were choosing to drink it. The measure that he poured was half vodka and half lemonade, an amount that seemed to be normal. She accepted the glass with a smile and responded when he raised his, touching their classes in cheers before both lifting them to their lips. Though wary of the taste, she attempted to keep the same pace as he did, drinking almost half the glass, and was pleasantly surprised to find that not only did it finally remove the after from the sambuca, when mixed with the lemonade, it tasted far better than her youthful mistake of drinking it straight. She decided that it reminded her of fresh lemonade, like her grandmother used to make in summer, sweet but tangy and refreshing, made with real lemons.

The aftertaste from her current drink was far less offensive than than the sambuca had been, and it didn't take er too long to finish it, absently sipping from it as she went back to people watching. She had heard somewhere, that the more someone drank, the less that they could taste the alcohol, and she wondered if this was the case with her, as she felt as though she had been drinking it as if it were water, and it was leaving no burn at the back of her throat anymore. What Hermione did know however, was that she was beginning to feel better than she had in a long time, feeling as though her thoughts and worries had drifted away. She didn't know how long it had been since she had felt as if she truly had nothing to worry about, that she could just relax, that her past held no demons. She felt young and free, like the carefree person that she should be, relaxing and enjoying herself like everyone else somehow managed to do.

Se felt brave enough now to approach the rather daunting table on her own now, and stood staring at the assorted bottles for a few moments, still having no clue what seventy percent of it actually was, being far too used to only being around wizarding drinks, and rarely at that. Finding that she was no where near confident enough to start mixing at random and hoping for the best, she looked for the bottles she did no, and she quickly located the vodka, pouring the same amount into the glass that she had seen the dark haired man from before doing so. She grabbed one of the six, as far as she could count, identical, but all opened bottled of lemonade and filled the rest of her glass. Taking a sip, she smiled, almost proud of herself for getting it right, the drink tasted exactly the same the last.

Though she was feeling more intoxicated than she ever had before, by the looks of things, she was fairing a lot better than most of the people still crammed into the small flat. Everyone around her looked beyond tired, as if they had been awake for days, and possibly partying at the same time, Hermione could not understand that, she didn't think it was something she would ever be able to do, drink continuously for that long, it seemed impossible. Deciding she had grown bored of standing in the kitchen, Hermione decided to venture back out into the rest of the house, once again nudging her way through the crowded hall, filled with people still trying to get into the bathroom. She found herself back in the living room, and though there seemed to be less people packed in now, it was still pretty full. Finding herself an empty corner, she positioned herself in a way that she could see the entire room, and it wasn't long before people started talking to her, at first she found it difficult, having conversations with new people, which meant that eventually some had just walked away from her, but she was beggining to get back in to the swing of it, becoming once again accustomed to meeting new people, and beginning to realise that a lot of the people there, didn't even know Abbie and Claire, a lot of them having just tagged along, friends of friends of friends of the two girls it seemed.

"So, you went to boarding school? That must have been awful!" Hermione laughed, she had been talking to the guy from before, and had found out his name was Mark. She had been talking to him for the last ten minutes, and she wasn't sure if he was drunk or not, but he seemed awfully interested in her life.

"No, it wasn't awful at all, most of the time anyway, it really was a wonderful school, such a magical experience." She Paused and laughed at her own joke. "I loved it, even though I haven't been there in years, I still think of it as my home in a way." She said, smiling as she spoke, almost wishing she could go back, back to a simpler time, before war and death, before the nightmares that made her life a misery.

"You're kind of weird, but in a good way." Mark had said to her, laughing slightly as he did. Hermione wasn't sure if she should be offended by that remark, though she supposed he was still here and talking to her, so it couldn't be that bad of a thing. At that moment though, instead of replying she caught sight of the the clock on the wall and gasped at the time, it was three in the morning, and she couldn't believe that she had been there for six hours. She quickly apologized to Mark, and explained she had to go home, and told him that maybe they would see each other again, since he seemed to be one of the few that actually knew Abbie and Claire.

Setting off in search of her friends, she quickly found them back in the kitchen once again wit a few others. She thanked them both for the invitation and promised to text them soon. She smiled and waved a Mark as she left the flat, and was relieved to find that the stairway was no longer filled with people, and she could easily get down the stairs. She tok a deep breath as she stepped out into the fresh air, and all of a sudden she felt the alcohol hit her all at once and she almost stumbled.

Hermione decided that apparating home probably wasn't the best idea in her current state, instead she called herself a taxi and made her way to the closest floo point, which was still quite a while away, and she almost found herself falling asleep more than once. Passing her money over to the taxi, she jumped out and made her way into the building which housed one long floo. Positioning herself, she called out her destination and dropped the floo powder. It had been a while since she had traveled by floo, preferring to apparate to and from her work, so she was quite disorientated when she reached home, and somehow manage to stumble out of the fireplace and trip over e corner of the rug, she threw her hands out and managed to stop her face from hitting the floor, she sighed in relief and pushed herself up on to her knees, and then she noticed the two pairs of feet in front of her. She cringed as she looked up to meet two sets of us staring down at her.

"And where the hell have you been Hermione Granger?"


End file.
